Mar 8 - Kramer - Inherit the Wind - KarazwLaimoon
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Mar 8 - Kramer - Inherit the Wind
Cinema Talks > 2017 Winter (Season 11)
Cine Club 8 March 2017 at 7:00 pm
Title: Inherit the Wind
Director: Stanely Kramer
Language: English (French Subtitles)
Duration: 2 hrs 8 min minutes
Duration: 2 hrs 8 min minutes
Key Actors: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly
Link to IMDB: Click Here
YouTube Trailer: Click Here
The New York Times: Click Here
Wikipedia: Click Here
The film will be preceded by a short talk given by Faisal Abou-Izzeddine going through the history of a similar struggle in AUB when one professor taught evolution!
Synopsis: (From Filmsite, Click Here)
Inherit the Wind (1960) portrays, in partly fictionalized form, the famous and dramatic courtroom "Monkey Trial" battle (in the sultry summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee) between two famous lawyers (Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan) who volunteered to heatedly argue both sides of the case (over 12 days, including two weekends).
Its story centers around the issue of evolution vs. creationism, in the prosecution of 24 year-old Dayton High School mathematics teacher and sports coach - and substitute science teacher - John T. Scopes for violating state law (the 1925 Butler Act) by teaching the Darwin's theory of evolution in a state-funded school. The film's title was taken from the Biblical book of Proverbs 11:29: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
[In fact, Scopes deliberately agreed to challenge the Tennessee legislature's statutes and become a "friendly" test case for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) by allegedly teaching theories that denied the Biblical story of the divine creation of man. Although Scopes was brilliantly defended by Darrow, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 on July 21st. In 1927, Darrow and the ACLU appealed the case before the Tennessee Supreme Court, which invalidated the Dayton court decision on a minor technicality - the fine should have been set by the jury, not the judge, they ruled - and the case was dismissed without further appeal. Because the Butler Act was still on the books in the mid-1950s, on July 10, 1955, the ACLU formally requested that Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement initiate the repeal of that law. But the law remained on the books for over another decade. In 1968, the US Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that bans such as the Butler Act were unconstitutional, because they contravened the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, since their primary purpose was religious.
An absorbing, liberal "message" film-maker Stanley Kramer both produced and directed the film that modified and slightly disguised the historical event by changing the names of the prototypical characters and making them fictional figures. His allegorical film was also designed as a protest against the repressive thinking of the 50s McCarthy era.
Stanley Kramer (from Wikipedia)
Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913 – February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message films". As an independent producer and director, he brought attention to topical social issues that most studios avoided. Among the subjects covered in his films were racism (in The Defiant Ones and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), nuclear war (in On the Beach), greed (in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), creationism vs. evolution (in Inherit the Wind) and the causes and effects of fascism (in Judgment at Nuremberg). His other notable films included High Noon (1952, as producer), The Caine Mutiny (1954, as producer), and Ship of Fools (1965).
Director Steven Spielberg described him as an "incredibly talented visionary", and "one of our great filmmakers, not just for the art and passion he put on screen, but for the impact he has made on the conscience of the world." Kramer was recognized for his fierce independence as a producer-director, with author Victor Navasky writing that "among the independents . . . none seemed more vocal, more liberal, more pugnacious than young Stanley Kramer." His friend, Kevin Spacey, during his acceptance speech at the 2015 Golden Globes, honored Kramer's work, calling him "one of the great filmmakers of all time."
Despite uneven critical reception, both then and now, Kramer's collected body of films receives many awards, including 16 Academy Awards and 80 nominations, and he was nominated nine times as either producer or director. In 1961, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1963, he was a member of the jury at the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. In 1998, he was awarded the first NAACP Vanguard Award "in recognition of the strong social themes that ran through his body of work." In 2002, the Stanley Kramer Award was created, to be given to recipients for work that "dramatically illustrates provocative social issues."
